Sporting CP (basketball)

Sporting Clube de Portugal (Portuguese pronunciation: [sɨˈpɔɾtĩˈkluβɨðɨpuɾtuˈɣal]), otherwise referred to as Sporting CP, is a professional basketball team based in Lisbon, Portugal.

The team competes in the LPB and plays its home matches at Pavilhão João Rocha.

History

Basketball was introduced at Sporting Clube de Portugal in 1927. However, the early decades of this sport were not easy, as it was very difficult to find enough players to build a team and the club did not have its own facilities. During this period, a women's team was also created, but it only competed during the 1937/1938 season before being closed down. It was only in the 1945/1946 season that the club decided to invest properly in basketball, building its own court and making its coaching staff professional. This new reality led the club to its first national titles.

Despite periods marked by several national titles won by the men's team and various attempts to maintain the women's team, the club entered the 1990s in serious financial crisis. To balance the accounts, in 1995, the president Santana Lopes, held a referendum among the club's members to choose between basketball and handball, which of them should be discontinued and which would be maintained. The members chose to keep handball in the club, so basketball was discontinued.

In March of 2012, it was announced that basketball would return to Sporting CP in the following season (2012/13), with independent management through the self-sustaining Associação de Basquetebol SCP. The return took place through the youth teams and the women's team. Four years later, in 2016, the president Bruno de Carvalho announced that basketball was recognised as an official sport of the club again.

In 2018, the president Frederico Varandas announced the creation of a men's team, which would compete directly in the LPB from the 2019/2020 season. In November 2018, the LPB held a vote with all clubs, which unanimously accepted the return of Sporting CP basketball team to the competition.

Facilities

Pavilhão João Rocha

Pavilhão João Rocha is a multi-sports arena located in Lisbon. Located next to the Estádio José Alvalade, it is the home of Sporting CP indoor sports teams and was named after former club president João Rocha.

Honours

Domestic Competitions

• LPB: 9

1953/1954, 1955/1956, 1959/1960, 1968/1969, 1975/1976, 1977/1978, 1980/1981, 1981/1982, 2020/2021

• Portuguese Basketball Cup: 9

1954/1955, 1974/1975, 1975/1976, 1977/1978, 1979/1980, 2019/2020, 2020/2021, 2021/2022, 2025/2026

• Portuguese Basketball Super Cup: 2

2021, 2022

• Taça Hugo dos Santos: 2

2021/2022, 2022/2023

Current Roster

External links